Legacy Of The Precursors
by DrakeTheTraveller
Summary: Concept: A UNSC post war prowler crewed by a spartan and ONI personnel are on patrol. Spartan Conner-066 code name Wrath is the commanding officer. They stumble upon an errant wormhole that was in uncharted space. Before he could relay the information to fleetcom it pulls his ship inside.
1. Chapter 1

Legacy of The Precursors

Chapter I

Spartan Conner-066 sat in the captains cabin deftly twirling his fifteen inch, diamond composite, stained black KA-BAR in his massive gauntleted fingers. The chair was designed with a fully geared spartan in mind. Still it creaked dangerously when he moved. His brain was preoccupied by a whirlwind of thoughts. He was bored so feeling nostalgic he thought back to all the events that led him here.

The Great War ended in 2553. He was only five when the covenant found earth and his family died. After their death an ONI operative by the name of Sandra offered him a chance at revenge. He immediately accepted. She took him to a super secret compound on one of the recently discovered forerunner shield worlds. He asked her why he was so important, what made him so special, and what they had planned for him.

She had replied "we need another hero." Since the master chiefs disappearance ONI had been searching for an individual that displayed the same desirable traits that he did. Apparently Conner was the one. He was to be different then any other spartan before him.

For starters he was the only one at the compound. There were no other kids, no other Spartans in training. Only him, his instructor Marcus, the ONI agent Sandra, and the base personnel. They also had improved the drug cocktail that they used to enhance Spartans. It was more potent and effective. His armor and equipment would also be better then the top of the line, most being experimental.

He wasn't really a spartan IV. He was just put under the moniker. The way he was trained and at his age were still considered unethical by the citizens of the UNSC. They used the IV title as a smokescreen to mask the truth.

He trained on that base for eleven years. On the ninth year he was put through the augmentation process. It was the most excruciating and agonizing thing he had ever been through. But the results were worth it. After it was all said and done he gained an extra foot and was now six feet and five inches tall, and he wasn't even done growing at the time. His muscle density had been increased and his bones coated in ceramic plate. He could lift tanks and other heavy vehicles. His test score in tactics and combat evaluation had skyrocketed.

The only problem was when he was placed into spartan IV teams. He exhibited a sort of lone wolf syndrome. Most likely caused by his isolated development. He clashed with his superiors and was reckless and brutal in combat, even more so then spartans usually were. Yet he always got the job done no matter the cost to infrastructure or regards to civilians safety.

ONI approved of his efficient strategies. So they took him out of the spartan core and struck him from the records after his third year running ops with IVs and marines. Then he was give the largest and most advanced prowler in ONI's arsenal. The Spirit of Vengeance. It was the first of an independent line of constructs from the shipyards towed from Trevalyn to Salvador.

The prowler was infused with forerunner tech and human ingenuity. It was the largest ship that the UNSC built that could achieve complete and total stealth. It was a hybrid vessel. Part carrier, cruiser, and prowler. The designers made it self sufficient as well. Two and a half kilometers long it was one of the largest UNSC ships ever constructed and was one of the most heavily armed.

The Spirit of Vengeance had six plasma projectors two super Mac cannons, six hundred and fifty archer, rapier, and howler missile pods as it's offensive armament. Its defensive capabilities and close in emplacements consisted of a network of four hundred 70mm cannons and a large number of onager mini macs. The spirits shields were reverse engineered from forerunner dreadnoughts. All of these were powered by the three flash point graviton generators which also maintained the the rest of the spirits systems.

All in all it was one of the most advanced and dangerous vessels in the UNSC's arsenal and it was given to a spartan. A spartan, who technically never existed. He was on its shakedown cruise, it's maiden voyage. He and his crew were just patrolling the far reaches of the known galaxy. A simple and easy assignment.

"Commander, your presence is requested on the bride." A voice interrupted his musings.

He didn't respond to the hail. He just got out of the complaining chair, it let out a humanlike sigh of relief, and exited his cabin. He was not one to bandy words around. Conner-066 plowed through the corridors drawing nervous and fearful glances from his crew. They had heard allot about him. Antisocial, violent, quiet, and recluse, even more so then any other spartan, all of these things they whispered to each other. He never bothered to dissuade them.

The bridge doors opened with a clang and he swiftly strode to the man who summoned him. His heavy metal boots making a loud thunks. He never said a word, he just stared at the sweating ensign through the red visor of his all black warrior power suit.

The poor ensign looked up at the towering armored behemoth and began to stutter. "S-s-sir t-their is a spa-c-cal ano-m-maly in the sector."

"...so?" He replied in his rough as shattered glass voice further amplified by the suit radio. His larynx and voice box were damaged in the augmentation procedure, but not irreparably so. The doctors could have fixed it but he had declined. He didn't care about material cosmetic changes.

"S-should we i-i-investigate?"

Conner-066 just continued to look at the ensign. His stare provided the answer he was looking for.

"O-o-of c-course sir r-r-right away!" The ensign hastily beat feet away from the intimidating spartan in front him and shouted for the bridge crew to set the coordinates and reenter slipspace.

Conner just scoffed internally and took his usual place at the back of the room, away from all the annoying and frail bridge crew. He knew it wasn't their fault, and he didn't truly dislike any of his crew. In fact they see all outstanding men and women. Its just that they were not at the standards he would want from his crew. And honestly they didn't even need to be here the dumb A.I could handle all the functions.

While he spent time thinking over what it would be like to not have a crew, the Spirit of Vengeance opened a slipspace tear and glided through.

The slipspace engines were of forerunner design so it only took a few minutes for them to arrive at the anamoly. When the Spirit slid out of the hole on space time Conner and his crew got a good look at the anomaly.

Conner had just one thought. 'It sure was anomalous.'

Just off the ships prow was a titanic wormhole. It's blue red swirling waves were somewhat hypnotic. The wormhole was big, it dwarfed the impressive visage of the Spirit. This was definitely something that needed to be reported immediately.

"Communications officer get me a line to fleetcom!" He barked harshly.

"Right away sir!" The dark skinned man quickly began to open a line of communication through a buoy at the edge of the system. As the man types on the console Conner's executive officer shouted in panic.

"Commander Cherenkov radiation is being ejected out of the anomaly and we're being pulled!"

"I want maximum burn, get us away from that wormhole!"

"Yes sir, engines at maximum."

Conner nodded and watched as they slowly pulled away. After severely minutes he noticed that they were getting closer not farther.

"Status report!"

"Sir! The gravitational pull is to intense, we can't get out of its radius!"

"Divert all power to the engines, everything but life support!"

The deck was a maelstrom of activity as the crew did their best to prevent the ship from being sucked into the wormhole. Soon they even had to turn of the artificial gravity. The crew floated around until they tethered themselves to their workstations. "Sir it's not enough we're still being drawn in!"

The bridge was silent as they all realized their would be no escape. This is where a normal commander would blather on of how it was an honor and whatever else they did. Conner just stood there unflinching as he vehemently gazed at his end.

The Spirit of Vengeance was violently tugged into the wormhole. The bridge shook and people were tossed out of their seats like rag dolls and thwacked into the unforgiving walls. Conner's enhanced ears could hear the snapping of fragile bones. The only reason he wasn't thrown of his feet was his considerable weight and his magnetized boots. He heard the radiation warnings in his suit spike. It was lethal enough to kill everyone on the ship. He could see his crew convulsing in pain. There was nothing he could do. Then he was finally ripped of his feet and tossed into a bulkhead and hit it so hard he blacked out.

Admiral Adams sat in his chair on the bridge of the CDF Ironside. The old terrier had a mug of coffee that was cooling slowly on his armrest. The wispy faint trails of steam daintily floated into the many times recycled air. The last week had been boring, nothing but standard patrols and occasional pirate activity. Even the crew was bored. Adam could swear he saw Donnels playing an old arcade game at his station.

"Anything to report?" He asked his second in command hopefully. Seriously even a pirate raid would be something.

"No sir." The female otter replied, tail swinging lazily behind her tracing abstract patterns on the decking. "Wait!"

Adams jumped up in his seat surprised, knocking over his mug and sending coffee all over the floor. "What?"

"Admiral deep space scans have detected strange readings coming from the neighboring sector!" She replied quickly and efficiently.

"What type of readings?"

"Sir they are similar to the reading from the Beltino gate systems!"

"Hmmm set a course, gather the fleet and get us there now."

"Right away sir!" The bridge lit up with activity as the bored crew had finally managed to find something interesting.

"I hope it's nothing too interesting." The admiral muttered as the fleet of ten ships activated their hyperdrive and vanished in a flash of light.


	2. Chapter 2

Legacy Of The Precursors

Chapter II

Admiral Adam was looking at something breathtaking. Their fleet had arrived at the location of the strange readings. It was an amazingly large wormhole. The fleet had cordoned it off as well as they could with such a small force. They had already contacted headquarters and requested more ships.

"What's the status on our support?"

"They are mustering at the rally point above Katina and will warp in once all the requested units arrive." His second in command Mary replied.

"Excellent, do we know if venom has detected this?"

"We can not tell at this time sir but we should be on the lookout." Mary answered.

Adam leaned back with a sigh. He only had a few corvettes and cruisers at his disposal. I'll suited for a venomian attack. He prayed that nothing would go wrong.

"Sir something is emerging from the wormhole!" Mary said worriedly.

"What!" Looks like the gods weren't listening. "Warm up the laser cannon batteries raise shields and launch all fighters!" He wasn't going to take any chances.

"Already done sir."

He smiled, "good work Mary. Now let's hope its nothing."

It was the opposite of nothing. The biggest ship he had ever laid eyes on slowly oozed out of the wormhole. It was larger then anything even the venomians had ever built. It was all hard edges and angles, and had long menacing wings on either side. A single glance at it burned one word into his mind.

Alien.

"By the gods!" He gasped. The entire bridge went silent. The most worrisome thing about the alien craft was its appearance. It was clearly designed for war. Adams could see two massive cannons at the front. They chilled his blood. By the looks of it one shot could shear a CDF carrier in half and then go on through another half dozen ships. That wasn't even including all of the obvious missile silos and smaller cannon emplacements.

If this was indeed hostile he doubted that even with the reinforcements he would be able to stop it. "What do we do?" A feline ensign asked voice trembling.

"Initiate first contact protocols. Send the greeting." The ensign nodded and set up the package and relayed it. The admiral prayed to the gods that they were friendly.

Aboard the silent vessel bodies floated in the darkness of the bridge. The ships A.I was processing all of the events that had just occurred. The entire compliment of its crew lay dead, or rather floated, except for the spartan, who was unconscious. The A.I wasn't concerned, his suit vitals signs were in the green. Conner floated by a bulkhead, which was indented a good three feet.

It spent a few minutes restoring the ships systems. It slowly restored gravity so that the bodies would gently reach the deck. Conner still made a loud noise when he hit the floor. The A.I then reactivated the two stalled generators and returned the ship to full functionality. 'Now what to do about those ships outside?' It thought to itself.

It ran them through the ship identification roster. They weren't of covenant, UNSC or any known forerunner design.

While it was still debating the best course of action it received a signal that was surprisingly in English. It was coming from the largest ship on the fleet surrounding the spirit. The ship was small only about a kilometer long.

It was seemingly a standard first contact package. Except for one thing. This race of aliens appeared to be evolved forms of earth fauna. 'Interesting' it took only moments for the A.I to digest and store all the information in the huge file.

Then it detected from long range scanners that a large fleet of ships was barring down on this location. The scanners were so sensitive they could tell that the incoming fleet was charging what appeared to be energy weapons. The A.I prepared for combat.

"Sir I'm detecting what seems like energy weapons and shields powering up!" A ferret called from a workstation.

The admiral froze. If this thing intended to fight they would all probably die. Still they would fight to the end. "Go to battle stations!" He commanded. "Pull the rest of the fleet back and get them into position."

As the fleet moved into place he was surprised to see that the alien ship had not fired during that moment of weakness. "Sir ships coming in from out of system, it's the venomians!" A she wolf cried out from her console.

Damn! This couldn't get any worse. In jumped twenty five venomian vessels. A hodgepodge of cruiser and corvette weighted craft lead by a dreadnought. They could not hope to fight both the venomians and the massive alien ship. "Move the fleet into tortoise formation, if we are to die we'll give them one hell of a fight!"

The A.I carefully monitored this new development. It did a quick recap on the package about venomians. From what it read they were like the covenant, brutal and without mercy. They clearly did not come here to talk. 'I could make a decision here.' It thought to its self. 'Which side to help?' After only a few nanosecond it made its choice.

"CDF dogs! This is commander Arkwright of the venomian battle fleet rising revenge. As of now this area belongs to the the mighty venomian empire." Arkwright was confident that they could seize this wormhole and that huge alien ship for the empire. The lizard smugly sat in his chair. He just loved tormenting the weak.

"Venomian fleet, this is admiral Adam of the CDF 5th fleet. As per the coalition accord you are trespassing in cornerian space, we would ask you to leave." A terrier answered back.

Arkwright scoffed and cut the transmission. The accord was a joke, all he had to do was destroy the fleet and kill every last one of them. It could always be blamed on pirates, after all pirates don't leave survivors

"Sir!" Mary warned, her tail was whipping around erratically. "The venomian fleet is launching fighters!"

"Position our fighters and prepare an intercept course." Adam was afraid. Not for himself, but for his crew. He had lived a good life but they were all young and ambitious. They didn't deserves to go out like this.

As the venomian ships ever so slowly approached, the inevitable demise of his fleet was averted. "Admiral the alien ship is moving!" The feline ensign reported.

At first the admiral felt a jolt of fear, 'was it moving to destroy them?' The massive alien ship glided to the front of the outnumbered and outgunned CDF fleet and stopped. "Sir it has taken what appears to be a defensive position in front of our forces!" The feline said sounding slightly confused.

"What?" The admiral exclaimed in surprise. No one answered his question as they were to busy watching the events unfold. The venomian fleet slowed marginally until they halted just outside weapons range.

"What is the meaning of this?" The venomian admiral demanded. No one on his bridge offered an explanation. "No matter I want that ship disabled. Target its engines." He waved dismissively. The entire venomian fleet fired on the alien craft.

The CDF watched in awe as the venomians barraged the huge vessel. The lasers either glanced of or were absorbed by the impressive shielding. It was like watching bees pick at a giant bear. Once the fleet stopped firing the ship retaliated.

Two piercing bright lights shot out of the vessels wing tips and bisected a pair of venomian corvettes, they burst into dazzling shards of heated shrapnel and debris. The explosion was so intense if wiped out the wing of fighters stationed in between the two doomed ships.

"Gods!" Mary exclaimed at the sheer destructive power. The alien ship was not done. The many mission silos opened revealing the cavernous tubes filled with the harbingers of death and destruction. The silos released their deadly payloads. The streaks of exhaust left by the torpedoes filled the entire area of space around the ship concealing it briefly.

The missiles impacted amongst the startled venomian fleet like the hammer of an angry god. A dozen of the ships were crippled or downright destroyed by the hail of explosive ordanance. In response the remnants of the once powerful fleet emptied everything they had into the smoky haze where the missiles had emanated from. Once it cleared the venomians and the CDF were dumbstruck. The ship was gone. It was no longer on sensors and there was no debris signifying its end.

"Hah! We got it!" Arkwright exclaimed triumphantly. His victory was short lived, as was his remaining time alive.

"Sir the enemy ship has reappeared behind us!" An ape said panicking. Indeed the alien ship was now flanking the dreadnought and the few cruisers and corvettes that were left. It had just materialized out of nowhere.

"Bring us around!" The lizard shouted voice laced with fear. It was no use.

Lines of blue light began to manifest along the spine of the alien ship. Once the light had reached a crescendo the two massive cannons fired.

One shell split the dreadnought from prow to stern. It exploded violently as the generators and energy cells ignited completely vaporizing the pride of the venomian fleet. It was the luckiest ship.

The alien craft charged forward at an unbelievable speed and smashed into a cruiser cracking it open like an egg. The coup de grâce was the close in network of cannons firing amidst the ships obliterating them as their hulls splintered and shields failed.

It plowed through the carcasses of the once grand and mighty fleet and stopped facing the awed and terrified CDF battle group.

The admiral was wrong, there was no way he could ever have stopped it. "W-what d-d-do we do n-now?" Mary asked quietly, almost as if the ship was a living being that could here them.

"I don't know Mary." Adam said just as quiet. Then amazingly the huge alien ship vanished. It just disappeared leaving the bewildered CDF floating in the darkness of space orbiting a brand new ship graveyard.

They were so shocked they didn't even notice the wormhole closing.

The bridge was quite until a fleet of CDF cruisers lead by a carrier warped in. "Adams this is Blake, how's it going you old dog..." The boisterous voice of the other admiral reverberated through the silent bridge before petering off. "What in the blazes happened here?"

"Blake I need you to contact headquarters immediately, get General Pepper."


	3. Chapter 3

Legacy Of The Precursors

Chapter III

Conner awoke to a mind numbing headache. With a groan he sat up and looked at his surroundings. His crew lay in broken heaps scattered around the bridge. He sighed heavily. He may not have liked any of them but they were his responsibility and he had failed them.

"Commander it is good to see you up and about." A voice spoke to him.

His foggy mind did not register who it was so he drew his MX-34 laser pistol and scanned the room. "Who said that?" He growled.

"It is I sir, the ship's A.I, Epsilon." A virtual spartan materialized on the pedestal built next to the captains chair.

Conner simply nodded in understanding and holstered his weapon, it mag locked to his thigh. He looked at the corpses of his crew "give me a status update."

"Well sir, the entire crew compliment is KIA. Yet the ship is unharmed and ready for service."

"The death of the crew was...unfortunate." Conner replied. "But the real problem is can we get back through the wormhole?"

Epsilon went quiet for a moment. "I'm afraid that would be impossible."

"Why?" Conner demanded angrily.

"The wormhole closed after I engaged the hostiles."

"Hostiles? Wait where are we." There were to many questions without answers.

"It seems sir we are in uncharted space, in this A.I's opinion I don't even think we are in the same galaxy. The stars don't match the charts and the sentient life here is like nothing we have seen before."

"Troubling." Conner mused, "about those hostiles..."

"Yes sir, there was a force of alien ships arrayed at the wormhole when the Spirit came through, they sent a first contact package and I received and perused it. You may look through it when the time is available. Shortly after another fleet arrived with hostile intent to capture this ship. So I made a choice, I sided with the original forces and destroyed twenty five frigate and cruiser weight ships. They also had one larger ship, about a kilometer in size."

"Hmmm...threat assessment?"

"Minimal, their ship's shields were inferior and their energy weapons hardly brought our shields down five percent. Additionally they were weak to kinetic and ballistic munitions. I recorded the engagement if you wish to view it."

The spartan nodded. "Maybe later, for now I must see to my crew." The spartan said emotionlessly, although the A.I detected a slight shift in posture and brain chemical balance that suggested he was upset.

"I want you to chart a course to the nearest star." Conner ordered as he gently picked up one of his deceased crew mate. The unfortunate communications officer, it seemed that his spine had broken when he hit the wall. Conner thought he was lucky. He wouldn't have felt the pain of the radiation scouring through the ship.

"By your order." Epsilon saluted and phased out.

Conner spent the next five hours finding all six hundred off his crew and placing them in their metal coffins. Once he was done with the grisly task he began to load them into the missile tubes.

"May I ask what your doing?" Epsilon inquired as he watched the spartan load the last of his crew. Gunnery chief Mitchell Ortega, the man was found holding a photo of his family in the infirmary. The A.I had logged him as going to pull though his fever. Sadly it didn't matter anymore.

"I'm going to jettison them into the star." Conner said simply.

"Would it not be more respectful to wait to bury them?"

"They are dead, this is the most efficient way to deal with them. I won't allow decay to set in on my ship." The spartan said firmly and coldly.

"Understood sir." Epsilon said briskly before his avatar left in a huff.

Conner scoffed as he closed the last silo. "Why would an A.I care?" He muttered to himself. 'This must be done.' He thought, although, a small shred of doubt lingered. He crushed it swiftly and efficiently burying it under his stone cold and hard will. Now was not the time for sentimentality.

With that done he headed back to the bridge and summoned Epsilon. "Are the silos primed?"

"Yes sir." The A.I said blandly, although Conner could swear he heard a tiny bit of anger.

"You do understand why I must do this, right? I don't have the time or manpower to bury six hundred men and women. And from what you have told me we are stuck in a different galaxy this is the only option I had." The spartan said.

Epsilon could detect the almost childlike plea for understanding in the rough voice of the spartan. After a nano second of processing Epsilon forgave him.

"You are correct sir, this was the only way."

The spartan shifted ever so slightly to a more relaxed posture. "Thank you, now if you would please, send off are fallen."

As the silos opened and jettisoned the caskets into the red dwarf star the spartan stood up and saluted them. He watched them slowly drift towards their final destination not moving an inch his armor silent as the night and twice as dark.

He stood there for an entire hour, until the last casket had vanished into the stars molten core. "Now..." The spartan said stiffly. "Let's figure out what's going on."

He spent the rest of the day sorting through the first contact package and the battle report. "Intriguing, an alien race based off all the animals from earth, space fairing no less." He mused to himself in his cabin.

Epsilon entered the room via the tiny pedestal on Conner's desk. "Sir what is our next course of action?" It wondered.

"I don't know Epsilon, we are stranded in another galaxy with no way to contact fleetcom or any other form of humanity. And I don't think we will ever get back. The alien races here have ships and will stumble upon us eventually, no doubt after the engagement at the collapsed wormhole they will in fact be looking for us as we speak."

The spartan sounded frustrated. In point of fact he was. He had sacrificed any chance at a normal life in order to bring death and ruin upon his families murders. Now he never would. The UNSC had turned him into a living weapon. A tool to be aimed at its enemies. Without them he had no purpose, no reason to carry on.

"What do you suggest we do?" He asked Epsilon.

The A.I could see the spartan shaking almost imperceptibly. He was at his limit. "If I may suggest," the A.I said gently. "We make contact with the CDF. And we could offer them our services."

"Why would we do that?" Conner demanded.

"Frankly commander we have no way of returning to our galaxy. It is only logical that we align ourselves to a galactic power. Additionally you were bred to fight, by my estimates you would reach a mental breakdown if you did nothing."

Conner had read up on the CDF through the first contact package. They were the protectors of the free people of this 'Lylat' system. A peace keeping force. And therein lay the problem.

Peace keeping.

Spartans don't do peace keeping. They are special forces operatives that are meant to demoralize and then annihilate an enemy, they didn't 'peace keep'.

"I don't know..." Conner said unconvinced.

"You asked me for my opinion sir and I gave it, ultimately the decision is yours."

"I will...consider it." He said finally.

"As you wish." Epsilon dematerialized leaving the spartan alone with his thoughts.

He leaned back in his protesting chair and took of his helmet. As he set the large warrior variant helm on the table he looked at his face through the small mirror at the table.

Conner was unnaturally pale. Having spent the latter part of seven years in his armor only occasionally taking it off. His eyes were a deep shade of gold another byproduct of his augmentation. He had a square jaw that had a thin layer of stubble and a thin mustache. His raven black hair was cut extremely short so it wouldn't bother him while he wore his helmet.

He turned his gaze away from the puny rectangle of glass and sighed as he leaned back further. The chair groaned dangerously, but he didn't care. He ran his gauntleted hands through his hair. 'What do I do?' He asked himself.

Meanwhile a certain galactic vulpine hero was walking through the streets of the cornerian capital. He was accompanied by his fellow mercenaries as they headed for the defense force headquarters. They had been summoned by a concerned General Pepper, and that worried them. General Pepper was always calm and collected. As Fox walked into the building and after signing in he looked back to the door to watch his team file in.

Falco Lombardi, the arrogant and antagonistic avian, Peppy Hare the wise old man of the team, Slippy toad the youthful and intellectual mechanic, Krystal the blue vixen and telepath, Miyu Lynx the fiery dispositioned interceptor pilot, and her long time friend Fay the border collie.

Fox had a grin on his muzzle as he watched them. They had been through allot together. From the defeat of Andross to the resurgence of the venomian empire. There was no one he would rather have at his side.

Falco was the first one to finish signing in and was grumbling as he walked up to Fox. "You would think they knew who we were by now."

Fox just chuckled loudly. "Of course they do! It's just standard procedure."

"Standard procedure." Falco mocked using and exaggerating Fox's tone.

Fox slugged him on the arm playfully. "Cut that out we're here on business." Falco just mumbled to himself and Fox could swear he heard, "I'll show you business!"

The next one to walk up to him was Krystal. She sedately waltzed up to him and giggled when she saw Falco's disgruntled state. She was wearing a purple pilot jacket, form fitting pants, sandals, and fingerless gloves showing off her red manicured claws.

"Hey Krys."

"Hey Fox." She snipped back playfully.

"You ready to see Pepper?"

"I don't know, he sounded upset when he called us, I hope its nothing bad." She answered.

"I'm sure everything will be okay." Fox placated the concerned vixen.

"Fox!" Slippy shouted as he ran over to the forming group.

"Yeah Slippy?"

"Did you hear what the guards are saying?" The energetic toad said excitedly.

"No what'd they say?" Fox asked.

"They were talking about a battle between a venomian fleet and a CDF battle group."

Fox frowned and Falco butted in. "That doesn't sound good."

"Maybe that's what Pepper called us in for?" Krystal hypothesized. She was sucking on a claw tip as she said that.

"Maybe." Fox said.

In short order Peppy Miyu and Fay made their appearance.

"I'm guessing Slip filled you guys in on the scuttlebutt?" Miyu drawled when she joined the group.

"You guessed right." Falco replied.

"This has me worried. If this is true we may be looking at another war." Peppy said.

"I sure hope not!" Fay exclaimed.

"Well if we want answers we better go talk to Pepper." Fox said. The group walked through the corridors of the building and noticed that all the staff seemed to be rushed. They zoomed around carrying tablets and whispering amongst themselves. Something big was going on.

"I think that Peppy might be right." Falco said to Fox.

Fox only grimaced and picked up his pace. In a couple of minutes they arrived at the secretaries desk outside Pepper's office. The young doe their seemed to have been waiting for them. "Pepper is expecting you, please enter." She said in a melodious voice.

"Thank you." Fox said before opening the door for his team. As they walked in they noticed the old bloodhound watching something on his screen and was deep in thought. His muzzle looked troubled. Yeah it was something big.

"Sir?" Fox announced them.

Pepper looked up from the screen paused it and stood up. "Fox it's good to see you again I just wish it was under better circumstances."

"What's the problem?"

"Earlier today the 5th picket fleet discovered a gigantic wormhole just off the Katina sector."

"A wormhole?" Miyu said in surprise.

"Yes. Admiral Adam requested reinforcements to help lockdown the sector. While the 6th expeditionary fleet was mobilizing over Katina a massive alien vessel emerged from the wormhole." Pepper said. "Soon afterwards a fleet of venomian ships came to lay claim."

The team was stunned. "Well what happened?" Falco blurted out.

"This." Pepper answered and pulled up the after action report and played the recording. The view point was from the admiral's carrier. It showed a massive winged vessel hovering ominously near the wormhole.

Fox was awed by its size. The great fox was a dreadnought. This ships eclipsed it. That wasn't even taking the wings that curved out of the ship.

Falco was drawn to the vast array of visible weapons that covered the alien ship. The largest being two monstrous cannons along its back.

Slippy was busy trying to grasp the amazing mechanical skills needed to bring such a ship into existence.

The other members of starfox just thought that it was the single most intimidating ship they had ever seen.

Then in the video the admiral ordered for his crew to send a first contact package. Once away they waited for a response. When one of the bridge crew warned that the alien craft's weapons and shields were powering up they feared the worst. To compound the matter the venomian fleet arrived and tried to claim the area. The admiral had told them to leave and was answered by the venomians moving to attack positions.

What really surprised them was the titanic alien ship, which moved into a defensive stance between the small CDF fleet and the inbound venomians.

"Why?" Fox asked Pepper.

"We don't know Fox."

Then the venomians fired on the ship. Starfox watched in awe as the ship seemingly absorbed the lethal beams of energy. And even more so when the alien ship fought back.

Two iridescent beams of light lances of of the vessels wingtips and scythed through two venomian ships. Scalpeling through the shields and hull like wet tissue paper. It wasn't done. Then it exuded a storm of missiles that tore through enemy fleet like nothing they had ever seen before. When the remaining vessels fired back and the fog cleared the gargantuan ship was gone.

Starfox was puzzled until they saw it appear out of thin air behind the enemy. "Jeez a ship that big can stealth!" Falco exclaimed.

No one answered as they watched the alien vessels spine light up blue until it reached a peak. Then two slugs flew out at unbelievable speed. One sliced the dreadnought down the middle and the other smashed through a few ships. In another display of awe inspiring might it crashed into the leftover ships and engaged in brutal close in broadsides that efficiently albeit crudely finished the leftovers.

It then flew out of the debris and stopped at its previous location and stared down the CDF's fleet and then vanished. Pepper paused the recording.

"That's it."

It took them a few minutes to absorb what they had just witnessed. "...Holy crap." Falco had just summarized everyone's thoughts aloud.

"Indeed." Pepper agreed.

"What does this mean for us?" Fox asked.

"For some reason that ship went out of its way to help us. I think that they're stranded here and need allies. I'll be frank the president wants to meet them."

"So?"

"I need you to find them."


	4. Chapter 4

Legacy Of The Precursors

Chapter IV

Starfox left the General's office and walked out of the building. Then Falco exploded. "He wants us to find that thing!"

"You heard him." Fox retorted as they headed back to The Great Fox. They passed hundreds of civilians going about their daily lives, completely oblivious to the problems out in space.

"So doesn't mean I had to believe it. What are we supposed to do if we even manage to find it huh? Or did you forget it could go in invisible!" Falco ranted for a long time before Miyu saved the day.

"Cut it out feather head! Your not helping."

"Yeah Falco don't be so mean!" Fay exclaimed.

Under the ire of the girls he folded like a tin can. "Alright okay jeez, I just wanted to get my point across."

"I'm afraid to admit but Falco is somewhat right. How are we going to find it let alone establish contact?" Peppy voiced.

"I'm sure Fox already has a plan!" Slippy said confidently before looking at the orange vulpine.

"You don't do you?" Krystal asked.

"Nope."

"Great." Falco muttered "in search of a giant scary alien vessel without a plan."

They got to the starport and swiftly boarded The Great Fox. Once they all were on the bridge Fox announced that he had come up with a plan.

"Alright we are going to head to the location where the wormhole was and see if we can pick up any trail it might have left behind."

"Well at least it's something." Fay said trying to cheer everyone up.

"Fay's right, at least we have a plan." Krystal backed her up.

"Yeah a plan that sucks." Falco muttered under his breath.

"What Falco?" Miyu said dangerously.

"Oh nothing."

Fox sighed and had ROB enter the coordinates into the drive. Sometimes his friends could be so childish.

Conner was in the gym on the recreation deck of the Spirit Of Vengeance. He was lifting over twelve hundred pounds. Because of the huge weights needed he was in the spartan specific workout area. This was one of the few times he was out of his armor. He was wearing a black tank top and cargo pants. Each having the symbol of the spartan program sewn into it. An eagle clutching arrows and a lightning bolt in its talons with a star overhead.

After a half hour he had wrapped up the rest of his workout routine. After all a spartan must always be at their physical and mental best.

He was sweating lightly so he took a shower in the locker room. He suited back up in his MJOLNIR and headed down to the mess. He walked in and made a couple steaks and mashed potatoes, a simple fair. That was another way he differed from other spartans. His hidden guilty pleasure, cooking. He enjoyed the simpleness of preparing a meal, he found it very therapeutic.

He sat at one of the many empty tables took of his helmet and mechanically ate his meal. He took note of the silence since he was the only one left aboard. It was...peaceful.

With that objective complete he went to the bridge. Epsilon was waiting for him. "Good afternoon sir, I await your command."

Conner nodded. "Set a course for where the wormhole used to be, make sure the stealth drives are active."

"Yes sir." Epsilon dematerialized to enact his orders. Conner could feel the deck vibrate as the engines warmed up and the Spirit began to move. In order to maintain stealth they would have to avoid using the slipspace drive, as it interfered with the systems that utilized the active camo.

Conner sat in the sturdy captains chair. It didn't even make a peep. He contemplated ripping it out and putting it in his cabin. Maybe then the damn chair would stop squeaking.

"Sir, why are we going back?"

"I want you to get a few scans of the area, maybe we will find something useful."

"Excellent idea sir."

An hour later they arrived at the place they had come from. It seemed as if the CDF had brought more ships. Now there was thirty, and there was a strange looking one. It was oddly proportioned. "Epsilon zoom in on the unknown."

"Right away sir." The screen next to the captains chair showed the ship in question. It was white and had a interesting logo, a four legged fox with wings. It was surprisingly big, at half the Spirit's size.

Still it wasn't the reason they had come here. "Hmmm...now run deep scans of the area. Try to find any trace of the wormhole."

"Already in progress sir."

"Good work." Conner sat in the captains chair and waited for the report. Hopefully they wouldn't be discovered.

The A.I knew Conner would never willingly reveal himself. It wasn't his nature to talk with others. Of course he talked to Epsilon, but it was only out of necessity. Knowing this he came up with a subtly plan to nudge him in the right direction.

"It looks like this was a dead end." Peppy said. "There's nothing here that would help us fine the alien craft." They has spent the better part of three hours trying to find even a shred of information that would lead them to it.

The team sighed collectively. "I don't think we will ever find it." Slippy said sadly.

"Why are you sad?" Falco asked. "Do you really want to find it?"

"Yes! Can you imagine? An alien species, think of all we could learn!"

That sparked an argument. As fox watched his friends bicker he couldn't help but frown. Sure they were an alien species. But guessing from the size and power of the ship they weren't a peaceful one.

He contacted the Admiral. "Has your fleet detected any sign of the ship?"

"No, you would think a ship of that magnitude would leave something behind."

"Yeah." Fox muttered. "I guess we're calling it for today. Maybe we'll pick up something at another time." As they started to get the ships moving a shimmering outside the bridge windows grabbed their attention.

It faded to reveal the alien vessel in all its glory. "Oh shit, we found it." Falco said fearfully.

"What happened?" Conner demanded, the ship had decloaked revealing it to the fleet ahead of them.

"I don't know sir the system malfunctioned, it was completely unavoidable...I guess we will just have to talk." Epsilon replied.

Conner could swear he heard a smug tone in the A.I's voice. "Damn it!" Conner smashed the thick sturdy metal armrest angrily. It crumpled under the tremendous force.

"Sir I'm receiving a hail from the new ship." He highlighted the ship that was half the size of the Spirit.

Conner sighed resignedly. "What do suggest we do after this accident?" He stressed the word.

"I hypothesize that the best course of action will be to communicate." Epsilon said snidely.

"Fine. Accept the hail, voice only."

A young voice, Conner put it at around twenty, came out of the speakers. "Alien vessel this is the Starfox mercenary group. On behalf of the CDF we thank you for your assistance with the fleet of venomian ships."

Conner grunted, "great, mercenaries. I don't like mercenaries."

"Be civil please." Epsilon scolded.

"Alright fine, patch me in."

Fox finished his greeting and waited for a response. He was incredibly nervous, his tail swished along the floor haphazardly. His friends were just as twitchy, and with good reason. The same ship in front of them had destroyed twenty five venomian ones singlehandedly. If it so chose it could have wiped them all out and gone about its merry way.

"This is spartan-066 of the UNSC Spirit Of Vengeance." A gravelly male voice growled through the The Great Fox's intercom. "Your thanks has been noted."

"Uh that's good." Fox said somewhat startled. He was very abrupt and to the point. "We uh wish to welcome you to the Lylat system and convey to you a message from the leader of the CDF. He wishes to thank you and your crew in person." Fox nodded to himself, yeah that sounded like something a diplomat would say.

"Okay." The man had said simply.

Fox didn't know what to say. Did that mean he would follow them? Did it mean he had acknowledged the request but didn't want to go? There where to many variables.

"Uh...okay."

Conner looked over to Epsilon's avatar on the pedestal. "What now?"

"If you wish you could take a pelican to their ship and I could cloak and follow."

"How would that be beneficial?"

"I would be able to covertly scan their homeworld and military strength when they take you to handle all the mundane talk."

Conner smirked in his helm. "We could glean allot of intelligence off of this. This might not be so bad."

"Oh and try to be diplomatic, no killing or maiming." Epsilon said with a sarcastic tone.

"No promises."

"I will go with you and leave my ship here." The male said gruffly after a long period of silence.

"Uh great. If you have a small ship you can land it here in The Great Fox. Then we'll take you." Fox said relieved that he had an answer. "The bay doors will be open."

"Affirmative. I will be arriving shortly." The rough voice grunted before cutting the line.

Fox sighed in relief before he felt a smack upside the head. "What was that for!" He growled at Falco.

"Dude, you just invited an alien aboard the ship! What were you thinking?" Falco squawked.

"I was thinking that it was a good idea."

"How?" The rest of the team watched as they argued. Which was ended when Miyu told them to shut up.

"Shut it. The alien ship just launched a smaller craft."

All fighting was put on hold as they stared at the approaching vehicle. It seemed to be some sort of gunship. It was angular with heavy armor plating and a large infantry/cargo hold. It had missile pods on the wings and a menacing rotary cannon on the chin. As it got closer Fox ran down to the hanger along with the rest of starfox to great their new arrival.

As they rushed down they all had different questions and thoughts zooming through their minds.

'What would it look like?' Fox.

'How many limbs would it have?' Falco.

'I hope it doesn't have tentacles.' Slippy.

'What have we got ourselves into now?' Peppy.

'This is so exciting!' Fay.

'Fay looks way to happy.' Miyu

'I hope nothing bad happens.' Krystal.

They arrived to see the gunship hover into the bay through the thin shield that kept the atmosphere in and space out. It gently came to a stop alongside the Arwings. They watched intently as its engines cooled down to a soft whine and the rear ramp opened.

Conner stomped down the ramp of his pelican and stopped at the end. Standing across from him was the oddest assortment of aliens he had ever seen before.

A orange fox in some sort of flight suit, a blue and red bird in a leather jacket and pants, another fox this time blue wearing purple, a rabbit in a lab coat, a frog in a jumpsuit, a lynx in a pilot outfit, and a border collie of all things, also in a pilots outfit. It was like some strange circus of walking talking animals. He gathered himself and marched over to them.

Starfox watched in awe and wonder as a giant in massive power armor stomped down the ramp. It was easily seven feet tall and was covered in it completely. The power suit was all thick heavy plates and bulky armor. It looked muscular even through the hard defined lines of the suit.

It had a huge pistol attached to its thigh. The matte black weapon gleamed menacingly in the light. It was hard to see because the alien's suit was also black. The only other color being the small red visor where they guessed its eyes to be.

It walked up to the stunned group and growled "Spartan-066 you can call me Wrath."

"W-welcome uh wrath, to The Great Fox." Fox stuttered almost unnoticeably.

The alien's helmet swiveled and they could feel its eyes studying each and every one of them. "Thank you." He said in his signature deep voice.

"Yes well let's get this show on the road." Fox said hurriedly and gestured for the giant to follow him. "If you would, I'll show you to the bridge. The alien nodded and followed Fox. The other hung back and watched as the armored behemoth lumbered after the vulpine. They had no idea that his enhanced hearing could pick up their conversation.

"Look at the size of him!" The avian whispered loudly.

"Yeah and that armor, it's amazing." The toad muttered.

"He's pretty muscular, you can see it through the suit." The lynx added.

"I wonder what he looks like." This time it was the cerulean vixen.

"I bet he's hot." The border collie mummered.

"He's awfully rigid." The hare said. "He has allot of discipline."

Conner ignored their whispering. People always whispered about spartans, it wasn't anything new. In fact this made them seem more human, more understandable. These aliens were interesting. And although he would never admit this, he liked them. The very few memories he had of his family included his pets. A fox, and a cat. They were his only real friends that he could have remembered.

His memories faded when the orange vulpine spoke. "Here we are." The had made it to the bridge. The fox had moved to sit in the captains chair and the others had moved to the other ones. There was one chair left presumably for him. After a moment the fox was curious that he had not taken the seat. "Don't you want to sit down?"

Conner looked at the small steel chair with hesitation. He concluded that it would not withstand his weight. Considering he weighed more then three hundred pounds out of armor and the armor weighed over half a ton. "I don't think that would be wise." He said slowly.

"Why?" The toad asked.

"I don't think it can take my weight."

"That chair is made of the best steel available, I don't think you weigh that much." The avian said with a smirk.

Marginally miffed Conner walked over to the chair placed a gauntleted hand on the seat and pushed down softly. With a groan of protesting metal he flattened it without expending to much energy. Conner scoffed 'best metal huh'. The team was dumbstruck. With a small amount of satisfaction he watched the avian gulp audibly. "I think I will stand."

"Hm yes well..." The vulpine cleared his throat. "I think introductions are in order. He then listed off and pointed at each member of his crew. "This is Falco Lombardi, second best Arwing pilot around." It was the snippy avian who still had a blank look on his face and was staring at the pitiful remains of the chair.

"Slippy toad, the mechanical genius keeping this ship running." The toad was staring at Conner with a disturbing amount of interest, or to put it better, at his MJOLNIR.

"Peppy Hare, the retired pilot and communications officer." The rabbit had a seasoned look, one who had been in many fights. Conner have him a respectful nod which the old hare returned.

"We have Fay Collie, interceptor pilot and long time friend." The collie was staring at Conner's body and making him a little uncomfortable. He had faced down charging jiralhanae chieftains and bellowing renegade Mgalekgolo and didn't feel the least bit off. But for some reason she gave him a feeling of discomfort.

"Miyu lynx our other interceptor pilot and one quick to anger." The lynx was trying to appear to be uninterested but he could easily see through her charade. Her feline eyes followed his every movement like a jungle predator stalking its prey. This made Conner bristle he was no measly prey.

"And finally Krystal the teams telepath." Conner froze...telepath, mind reader. He instinctive reached for his handgun but stopped himself.

"Telepath?" Conner said quietly.

"Yeah...she is." Fox said slowly noticing the change in tone. Krystal looked at the huge armored alien and saw him ever so slightly reach for his gun. Her heart stopped. Then he moved his hand away. She decided to not read his mind.

"Interesting." Was all he said.

"Yeah... Well now that we are done introducing ourselves how about you tall dark and mysterious?" Miyu inquired.

The alien stood there for a whole minute before he responded. "I am spartan-066 you may call me wrath."

"Yeah you said that already, but what's your name?" Falco bugged him.

"I don't give my name freely." He growled.

"Okay that's fine." Fox said trying to defuse the situation.

"Why wouldn't it be?" The alien asked.

Fox had no answer. Luckily he was saved by Fay. "Hey mister alien why don't you take off your helmet?"

This seemed to have stalled him. "I don't take it off...around others." He said reluctantly.

"Why something wrong with your face." Falco grumbled. The comment didn't bother Conner much but he was surprised to see the girls give Falco a dirty look, then Krystal elbow him harshly.

For some reason he felt a little bit more open now. "No not that. It's just I have been wearing this armor for the last seven years, its like a second skin."

"Wow seven years!" Slippy exclaimed. Everyone else was also intrigued.

"Yes I was given it after I completed training at the facility." He didn't go into detail, sure he was nowhere near any UNSC assets by he still didn't feel like divulging information. His silence told them that he was done talking.

"In any case now that our introductions are over let's get going." Fox had ROB prepare the engines for the trip back to Corneria. They said there goodbyes to the fleet and watched as Conner's ship disappeared.

"Where did it go?" Peppy wondered.

"Nowhere I just had it cloak." Conner said dismissively.

Peppy nodded in understanding. The ship warped out and the invisible form of the Spirit followed.

It took an hour for The Great Fox to reach Corneria. The entire time Conner, or wrath as they knew him. Leaned against a bulkhead not saying a word. The presence of the armor clad alien put a damper on conversations, and any attempt to engage him in one ended with a series of noncommittal grunts.

"Here we are." Fox said as The Great Fox warped in over the bustling city planet below. "Corneria the capital of Lylat."

Conner looked at the green and blue marble below. It reminded him of the pictures he saw of reach, before it was glassed of course. He hoped it would not meet a similar fate. "A beautiful planet." He mumbled to himself quietly without even realizing it.

"Yes it is." A female voice agreed near him. He shifted his helmeted gaze over to the women to see Krystal the blue vixen standing next to him. Her white tribal markings glittering in the light. He hadn't even noticed her, he chastised himself for his lapse in concentration.

Then for some odd reason he found himself talking to her. "So were you born here?"

"No I was born on a planet far away from here."

"Is it as beautiful?"

"It was." She said sadly.

"Ah...I see. What happened?"

"Andross."

Conner had read up on this Andross character. And he had greatly disapproved of the way the cornerians handled that affair. If it had been a UNSC scientist he would have been executed swiftly and efficiently. Not sent on some half assed banishment.

"Family?"

"Never got off the planet."

He didn't know how to address this situation. He was always bad with interacting with civilians and even other spartans. He wasn't a people person.

"...my condolences." He said after a while.

"What about you? Family? Home?"

He wouldn't usually share his past but he felt that it would only be fair. What he didn't know was that the others where watching them talk closely, hoping to gleam some small portion of the man under the armor.

"I had a family, I don't remember them much. They died along time ago."

"What happened?"

"That is a long and painful story."

"Oh I'm sorry, you don't have to tell me."

Sure he didn't but this vixen had shared her tragic past he wouldn't do any less. "It's fine, I was five when the alien hegemony dubbed the covenant found my homeworld. My family died in the ensuing battle." He said without a hint of sorrow in his voice. The other where surprised by his coldness, but Krystal could faintly pick up the lingering sadness and rage. If must have been boiling inside of him for her to feel it without actively reading his mind. He was very good at hiding his emotions. "The rest is history."

"We've landed." Fox announced ending the conversation. Everyone groaned internally they had gotten so close to unlocking a part of the mans background.

Fox led the team and the spartan to the exit hatch. The ramp lowered and they stepped out onto the tarmac. Waiting outside the ship was General Pepper himself and two tall heavily armored bodyguards. Even they were eclipsed by the sheer size and bulk of the spartan.

As soon as Conner came into view the bodyguards had brandished their rifle and aimed at him. Conner reacted in a blink of an eye. His gun was already in his hand and he targeted one of the guards. Simultaneously he had activated some form of energy blade that must have been somewhere on his person. It was over four feet long and was shaped like a medieval longsword. He had it pointed it at the other.

"Wait!" Fox exclaimed as he went in between the two armed parties. "This is the captain of the alien ship!"

Pepper turned to his men and ordered them to stand down. Once their rifles were lowered Conner holstered his pistol and deactivated his blade and placed it back on his waist. "My apologies captain. My men weren't prepared for a being of your...dimensions."

The spartan shrugged and replied in his customary rough voice. "They are not at fault, their reaction was a just one. They should be commended for their quick thinking."

Pepper and the others were surprised that he was not angry. "Really?"

"Yes if they had not acted swiftly they would not be doing their jobs as bodyguards."

"Well in any case I welcome you to the capital of lylatian space."

The spartan nodded. "I believe you wished to speak with me on the manner of my arrival into this galaxy?" Short and to the point.

"Correct. If you would follow me." Pepper motioned them to a rectangular armored personal carrier. Conner appraised it. It was of good quality. These lylatians had better vehicles then ships. Much like the UNSC before the Great War.

They entered and the spartan was the last one in. Pepper and the guards looked in awe as the the vehicle groaned in protest under his weight. Thankfully it held. "Grow em big where you come from?" One of the guards asked.

"The biggest." The spartan replied simply.

The ride to the CDF headquarters was uneventful. Everyone was staring at the huge armored spartan in the hold with them. But he was too deep in thought to care.

Why did he say so much? In all his years he had never talked to anyone like that. He was a loner by nature. Preferring to fight, work, and live away from the other members of the UNSC. Not once had they managed to peel away the shell he had formed around himself.

Now here in this different galaxy a short conversation with a fox women and he had already divulged more then he had to anyone else. It really was puzzling. He was startled by a tap on his shoulder plate. He reached for his handgun on impulse but stopped when he remembered where he was. He had to get ahold of himself.

"Hey big guy, we're here." The collie, Fay, said softly.

"Thank you." He said surprising her with the warmth of his tone. It seemed as if they were the only ones left inside. The others had left and were waiting outside.

"Any time." She said happily and climbed out. Conner took a moment took reaffirm his grip on reality and climbed out as well.

Everyone was standing outside waiting. The women were giving him strange looks. "Took a nap?" Falco jeered. Once more being elbowed, this time by Miyu.

"No." He said coldly. Fay frowned. He sounded so nice back in the APC. She looked at Falco and made her displeasure known by kicking his shin.

"Ow what the heck!"

They all ignore his protest and Pepper signaled for them to enter the building. As Conner followed them he could not help but notice all the stares. It seems everyone in a five block radius was watching him. The ones he could see were wide eyed with muzzles gaped. It was. Nothing new so Conner tuned it out. He did notice that he had to lean forward to enter the buildings doors. Inside the crowded loud room went silent.

All eyes were on him. It feel like he had fallen into a lions den. His trigger finger itched and he subconsciously fingered his sword hilt. Seeing this Pepper disbanded the group of gawkers. Thankful he took his hands away from his weapons. Soon after that they found themselves in Pepper's office.

"Now tell me how you got here." The bloodhound said when he had taken his seat. Everyone else sat in the available chairs and perked their ears up intent on listening to everything he was about to say.

Conner cleared his throat.


	5. Chapter 5

Legacy Of The Precursors

Chapter V

Conner began his long tale. "First to understand everything I must go back to the beginning." He did not want to speak for so long but he had little choice, so he powered through the discomfort.

"The Unified Earthen Government was humanities central power."

"Humanity?" Pepper asked.

"Yes I am of the human race."

Pepper nodded in understanding and told him to continue.

"Moving on, the UNSC or United Nations Space Command was the military arm. It's purpose was to defend earth and her colonies. Due to rising unrest the UNSC placed the colonies under martial law. In order to combat the growing rebellion they created a program called ORION. It was a failure. But it led up to the successful spartan project."

"Spartan...that's what you are!" Slippy exclaimed.

"Yes, unfortunately the specifications of the project are highly classified."

"So you can't tell us?" Fox asked.

"Correct."

"Why, what are you hiding?" Falco demanded.

"Some things aren't meant to be known." Conner said quietly and softly. It was one of the rare times he let his emotions bleed through his tough outer exterior.

"Well I want to know!" Falco said confrontationally. Everyone was looking at him angrily. He was being awfully rude.

"I'm sorry but it is classified at the Highest levels." Conner repeated his tone becoming angry.

"Oh so you can't tell us!" Falco said mockingly.

For some reason Conner was now very upset. He usually had better control over his anger. It was probably due to all the tension and recent events piling up with no way to vent in combat. So he couldn't stop his emotions from controlling him. He was no longer Conner, he was Wrath.

"So you wanna know the truth." Wrath hissed dangerously. They all went silent and Falco looked scared. This was something they had never seen before it was like he changed into a different person. "The truth is the spartan program was a highly unethical project where the office of navel intelligence kidnapped children all over the colonies put them through a brutal boot camp, causing some to kill themselves, and other to die just from the training courses. Then the survivors were augmented in a agonizing and terrible procedure to turn them into the most dangerous and lethal weapons ever molded by humanity. Many died or were horribly disfigured by the operation. And after that the survivors were trained on how to hunt down and kill the UNSC's enemies. THAT is the truth!"

Wrath was shaking with unbridled rage. The black armored giant was trembling with the urge to lash out. He was consumed with the desire to lay waste to anything and everything in existence. This wasn't the first time this had happened to him. The scientists said it was an imbalance in the brain, one of the many aftereffects of the augmentation. It was a sort of deep seeded feral rage that could manifest after a long time without expending energy. It was a frightening thing to behold.

Conner, now back in control visibly shook himself trying to clear his thoughts. "...Forgive me." He said quietly, "that was a complication from the augmentation procedure. After long periods of stress without a way to relive it, it can be triggered." He sounded exhausted.

The room was silent, they all were visibly shaken by his outburst, not to mention what he told them about the origins of the spartan program. "It's alright." Fox said when his voice returned. "Falco had it coming."

The others agreed with him wholeheartedly.

"Still I should not have let it get out of control." Conner said regretfully. He looked to General Pepper who was looking at the spartan with an understanding eye.

In all his long years he had seen many men turn out like this without any augmentation. The sad part was this was an infliction caused by his own people.

"Sir if I may request, do you have a training field, or somewhere I can...cool off."

"Of course son." Pepper said kindly. "Fox knows where it is, he can take you.

"...Thank you. I will wait outside." The spartan left the room leaving the others to stare at the door.

"That was something." Falco muttered.

Krystal jumped up and slapped him on the beak with her red manicured claws. "You asshole!" She exclaimed.

"What!" Falco shouted rubbing his now sore appendage.

"You insensitive jerk!" Fay exclaimed. Miyu just looked at him disgustedly. The women left the room leaving it occupied only by Fox, Peppy, Slippy, and Pepper and of course Falco."

"What'd I do?" He honestly didn't know what he did wrong, he was always like that.

"Falco sometime you can be an ass." Fox said before leaving as well to find the spartan.

"I think we need to talk." Peppy said as he motioned for Falco to sit with him and Pepper. Slippy decided to go after Fox.

Conner in an extremely rare moment of weakness was sitting on the floor with his back on the wall outside the room. He held his helmeted hand in his gauntlets. He did it again! He lost control! It was a terrible thing to lose control of ones mind. The last time it happened would never be forgotten, he could still see the look of surprise on the little girl's face.

He began to rock imperceptibly back and forth. The repetition was comforting to the lost spartan. It offered some semblance of order in his now hectic and bizarre existence. He knew it was bound to happen. After the death of his crew and becoming stranded in a different galaxy, inhabited by fucking animals! He always put out the tough spartan exterior but in reality he had a fault, a fatal one, he cared to much.

He always loved taking care of the animals when he was little with his mom, who was a veterinarian. He had a soft spot for the the small fluffy and furry ones. Then the covenant had come. He watched helplessly as the jirahalanae killed, and ate his family. He was trapped under a beam with a broken leg. His mom told him to stay quite until they were gone.

They had found her and his sisters. And he had to watch them die, screaming as the brutes played with their meal. That day the kind caring young boy died. And in his place was a cold unforgiving and angry man. Then ONI had offered him a chance at vengeance he could never have turned down.

He had done and seen things that he would never forgive himself for in his career as ONI's lapdog. The only way to carry on was to suppress it. Not anymore, memories surged through, like the flood god used to scour the earth of humanity in the old bible, swarming through his damaged mind. He continued to rock back and forth.

Broken on the inside.

Krystal and the other women walked out of Pepper's office. "Falco is such a jerk." She growled to herself.

"He can be kind of mean." Fay added helpfully.

"Yeah he's an ass alright." Miyu agreed.

"Where is the spartan, where is Wrath?" Krystal asked. Her question was answered when she saw him. The once intimidating and mighty armored human was sitting on the floor near the door cradling his helmet and rocking softly. The women gasped in surprise. "Oh gods!" Krystal gasped.

"Oh my!" Fay exclaimed with a paw covering her mouth.

Miyu was silent although her eyes were shining. Fox chose that moment to enter followed by Slippy. "What's going...oh." He said quietly.

"What do we do?" Slippy asked his voice panicky.

"Krystal do you think you can enter his mind?" Fox wondered. Maybe she could help him.

"I can try fox." She said determinedly. She closed herself off to the world and embraced her telepathic gift. She tried to find the humans mind.

It wasn't hard. Each persons mind is an extension of who they are. For some people it looks like a house with all of their memories like pictures on the walls. For some others it was like a museum guarding their memoirs subconsciously. The human's was a fortress.

It took on the appearance of a Medieval castle with large thick walls and imposing battlements. She spent a good deal of time trying to get in. There! A crack in the wall. She tried to work it open so she could get inside. It crumbled slightly releasing fragmented shards of memories.

"Please Conner no matter what promise me you will be quite." A women, furless and simian, looked into Krystal's eyes. She was stuck inside rubble and she could feel a piercing pain in her leg. It was broken.

"Okay mommy." She heard a little boys voice come from her muzzle.

"Your sisters and I love you very much the women said, she was crying as she moved a piece of rubble concealing Krystal from view, but she could still see. Suddenly she heard guttural snarling and barking in deep unintelligible tongues. The women was holding onto three little girls each furless and vaguely simian. Then the real apes showed up.

Towering furry beasts emerged from the wreckage of the families home. Their fur was matted with the dried blood of their recent kills. They wielded crude bladed pistols and they barked cruel laughs as they closed in on the defenseless family.

Krystal wanted to cry out, shout, do anything to stop the monsters. Then they did the unspeakable. It tore at Krystal's fragile mind, the things they did to that family.

She woke up to Fox's worried muzzle as he looked down at her. "What happened?" She ignored him and looked over to the spartan sitting on the floor.

She started crying.


	6. Chapter 6

Legacy Of The Precursors

Chapter VI

It took a long time to calm down the hysterical blue vixen. "What happened?" Fox demanded worriedly. "You were standing there and then you fainted."

She was still sniffling and the other women were tending to her. "I-I got into his mind." She hiccuped.

"And?" Miyu asked.

"Suffering...so much suffering." Was all the traumatized vixen could say.

"Alright just relax." Fay mummered gently as she brought Krystal into a hug to calm her down. Slippy feeling uncomfortable had left somewhere.

Fox walked over to Wrath as he knew him. "Wrath, hey are you alright? I know Falco can be a dick sometimes...hey can you hear me?" Fox nudged him softly. The helmeted head looked up.

With a roar of blood rushing back into his head Conner looked up into the concerned sea green eyes of the vulpine, Fox. "Hey can you hear me?"

"Yes." Conner said emotionlessly.

"Are you...okay?" Fox asked slowly.

"I'm fine." He replied simply.

"Good...uh," Fox fumbled for something to say. "Uh...you wanted to go to the practice field right?" He was wringing his paws nervously.

The spartan, even though sitting down, was eye level with the vulpine. "Yes I did, you can take me there?"

"Sure can!" Fox said loudly returning to his old self.

"That would be most appreciated."

The large spartan stood up slowly. Fox was amazed that the powersuit didn't emit any noise. In fact it seemed to make him quieter. "Okay then follow me." Fox said tail flicking in the direction he wanted to go. Conner was about to follow when he paused.

The blue vixen.

She was shivering in the arms of the collie woman, Fay. That was strange. "What happened to her?" He asked Fox.

Fox hesitated. "She...uh...well...uh...tried to read...uh your mind." He hoped that the spartan wouldn't freak out. He really didn't want to see anything like that again.

Fox watched alarmed as the spartan walked over to Krystal. But was surprised when he told Fay to move, and when she did, gently lifted Krystal into his armored arms and carried her back to Fox. An astonished Miyu and Fay in tow. "Let us go." Is all he said.

"Uh...sure." Fox said haltingly. They walked until they arrived at the huge open field right outside the building that had members of the cornerian armed forces or CAF as the pilots called them.

Krystal was cold for some reason. She was shivering as Fay tried to warm her up. She was thankful for the upbeat collie's help. She was always so nice and positive about everything. A good friend. When the warm paws of her friend disappeared she was confused. That was at least until she felt armored arms encircle her and lift her up ever so carefully. Curious she looked up to her helper. It was Conner. He looked down at her through his red visored helm as he carried her in his strong arms. She began to feel a different kind of warmth, on the inside. It was welcoming and protective. It made her feel content. All the horrible things she had seen in his mind drifted away, like leaves in the wind.

She could feel the powerful stride of the spartan, like coiled up springs ready to burst at a moments notice. Her mind was so distracted by the warm fuzzy feeling she didn't even notice that he had set her down on a bench and walked off. "Hey Krys are you okay?" Miyu asked. "You look out of it."

"Oh! I'm fine." She said quickly. As she studied the retreating form of her savior. "It was actually kind of nice."

"What?" Miyu asked, confused.

"When he held me...it was nice." Krystal said, now she was blushing.

"I'll bet!" Fay said

"How was it?" Miyu wondered. She tried to play it off but Krystal knew she was interested

"He made me feel safe and warm." Krystal said with a faint smile on her muzzle.

"Sounds nice." Miyu said with an air of indifference. Although Krystal could see her watching the spartan as he walked on to the field with Fox alongside. Slitted irises watching his every move.

"This is it?" Conner asked. It was actually very large and had closed of sections that looked like arenas.

"This is it." Fox affirmed.

"It will have to do...You have training bots?" Conner said in surprise as he saw a squad of light armored dogs fighting with a equal sized team of robots in a walled off arena type environment. They traded bolts of red energy, occasionally a dog would yelp signaling a connected shot. It reminded him of his time at the facility. Except he didn't have a squad and the UNSC didn't have robots.

"Technically they're war droids. But when our soldiers train they are set on nonlethal." Fox explained.

"So...they can be destroyed?" Conner asked as he saw one get its wolffish cranium popped with a successful sniper beam.

"Yeah we just fix them up and set them out again. I have the highest combat score!" Fox proclaimed proudly. "Twenty of them against me and I won."

"Huh...can I use them?"

"Sure." Fox signaled for a husky in armor, who walked over and looked at the spartan with the usual awe filled expression.

"Wh-what can I do for you Mccloud?"

"My big friend here wants to set up a match." Fox said slapping Conner on the back. His paw hit the hard metal and bounced off painfully. "Ow." He waved his paw trying to make the pain go away.

"Sure I'm sure I can get a few of my friends to join in."

"No." Conner said seriously "I want to go alone."

"A-alright then. How many do you want to fight?"

"Forty five." Conner deadpanned.

The husky's muzzle fell as did Fox's. "You can't be serious."

"Deadly."

"Okay then I'll have the field prepared." As the dog walked off the spartan stopped him again.

"I want them on lethal."

The husky's eyes bulged and he began to splutter."

"That's not allowed."

"I don't care." Conner growled.

The poor dog looked to Fox for support. He had mysteriously vanished leaving the dog alone to face the wrath...of wrath.

"Uh-uh okay...I'll just set it up!" The dog said quickly before running down the field and to the small building, presumably for the management of the simulations. In preparation for his first fight in a long time he rebooted his armor's shield system, ran a diagnostic on the suit to find any faults. Then he unholstered his pistol.

The MX-34 laser pistol, or CARNAGER, was the leading handgun for spartans after the events on requiem and was designed off of the forerunner boltshot. It combined the hardlight weapon and the old standard issue magnum to create a powerful new piece of gear. Large enough to fit in a spartans grip and powerful enough to knock down a rampaging brute, it was the weapon of choice for most if not all spartan IVs.

His other weapon was much more special. It was a custom energy sword. Made by one of the only friends he had ever made. A sangheili zealot, Va'tam. They had gone on many missions together against the storm, the covenant remnants, and had saved each other's lives. In thanks Va'tam had crafted a weapon suitable for a brother, as he put it. He had heard of the human knights of old. Noble and honorable warriors of earths ancient past. So he had made it to emulate their weapon of choice, the longsword. Conner had only made one small request, he wanted the blade's color to be red. When Va'tam asked him why he had simply responded "vengeance." He had understood.

Conner stood waiting for the dog to comeback and point him to the arena. He occupied his time rubbing the activator rune on the hilt of his sword. Lost in his memories.

Fox was sitting with Slippy who had come back from his self imposed exile. "What's he doing?" Krystal, Miyu, and Fay were a short ways off talking amongst themselves.

"He want to go toe to toe with forty five war droids." Fox said slightly unbelieving.

"Wow!" Slippy exclaimed.

"Yeah." Fox left when he first thought Conner was going to erupt on the poor husky so he hadn't heard the demand for the droids to be lethal. While he talked with Slippy he saw Pepper, Peppy, and a penitent looking Falco emerge from the main building and walk over to him.

"Fox." Pepper greeted.

"Hi General."

"Where is Wrath?"

"Standing over there." Fox pointed a clawed digit.

Pepper and the new arrivals looked to see the tall intimidating bulk of the spartan as he stood in the middle of the field and stared at his sword hilt.

"What's he doing?" Peppy wondered.

"Waiting."

"For what?"

"He asked to fight with a group of the war androids, he was very persuasive. Now he waits till the field is ready." As Fox said that they saw a husky walk over and briefly talk with the spartan. He nodded and followed him down the field to a now cleared arena.

Then another rushed over to Pepper and relayed something to him that made the old dog frown.

The tired cornerians that had just exited froze when they noticed the metal behemoth striding over, each contact with the boot to the ground caused a noticeable tremor, it was led by an outsized dog. What was it? they wondered. Was it a new war droid? Experimental exo suit? An assault mech? The group of tired soldiers wondered at it as they watched.

"Is this the place?" It spoke in a deep dangerous voice.

"Yes sir, the droids will be placed momentarily." The dog said to the massive...thing.

"Excellent...thank you for your assistance."

The canine bobbed his head and left. leaving Conner there with the cornerians who stared at him. After a minute he couldn't take it anymore. "Can I help you?" He growled.

"N-n-no we-we were ju-just leaving!" The sergeant of the squad stuttered and ushered his men away. Conner sighed as he watched them go. He was getting too emotional again. He needed to vent. As he reached for the door he heard someone shout his codename.

"Wrath! Wait!" He withdrew his gauntlet reluctantly and turned around. It was that team of mercenaries and the general. They did not look happy.

"What's this about lethal droids!" Fox demanded.

"I requested it." He answered simply.

"Why? You could die!" Krystal asked, worried for him.

"I don't train with piecemeal enemies, it's all or nothing."

"Still, what if you get hurt?" Fay asked concernedly.

"Then I need to train harder." He said with his childlike simplification. He dismissed the matter. He was going to do it either way.

Conner noticed that the avian, Falco was standing to the side of the group dejectedly staring at the ground. He knew that a team needed all its members to function properly. He stuck out his gauntlet. "Forgiven." Was all he said.

The avian looked up and stared at the black armored hand. Then he looked up to the red visor watching him. Slowly he grasped the offered gauntlet. He could feel the power in it as it closed around his hand and shook it. The spartan could have snapped it like a twig if he so wished, 'and I would deserve it' Falco thought. "Thanks." Was what he said though.

The spartan nodded and in a rare moment of openness , that was slowly becoming...something, gave a little more information about himself. "You can call me Conner, wraths my callsign."

Falco returned the nod with a smile and said "alright then...Conner, nice to meet you." The team looked on happily to see the two at odds men reach an understanding and to learn a little more about the human.

"Now of you'll excuse me I have some things to take care of." The spartan slipped past them and into the door before they could object.

"He's going to get himself killed." Slippy muttered.

"I for one want to see him in action." Miyu said and went to the observation room tail swinging lazily. They followed her to where evaluators could judge the teams fought down below.

"I agree." Pepper said and followed. Everyone else wanted to see for themselves as well. So they shortly found themselves in the observatory.

Conner was standing in the center of the field. He was wielding his large pistol and the hilt of his energy sword. The opposite doors opened and out with a clamber came forty five war droids.

War droids were a fairly new addition to the CDF. They stood at six feet and were constructed of the strongest metals ever designed by cornerian scientists. Each sported a VANDEL blaster rifle and an energy dagger. Both, in this instance, set to lethal modes. The droids came in squads of five and approached the spartan.

"This isnt going to end well." Slippy muttered.

"Come on have a little faith!" Falco exclaimed surprising them all. "What? Can't a guy have a change of heart?"

"Yes a guy can." Fox said and patted his friend on the shoulder.

"Hey something's happening!" Fay shouted.

The droids got closer. Conner reveled in their confident pace. He would be happy to dissuade them. He thumbed the activation rune and with a snap hiss the crackling crimson energy blade erupted from within its confines. He slowed his breath and drew forth all his emotions of rage, sadness, helplessness, confusion, and pain. He had become wrath.

I'm a blur of movement too fast for the viewers to comprehend Wrath flew forward and lanced his gleaming blade into the chest cavity of one of the droids. He rammed the barrel of his pistol into the adjacent one so hard it actually went through the metal. He fired three pulses into its head vaporizing it while simultaneously dragging his blade up through the original combatants torso in a bright shower of sparks and tore it to the right plunging it into the chest of the droid on his left.

Two point five seconds had gone by.

Continuing his rampage Wrath barreled through the wreckage of the droid in front of him crumpling it as he smashed into the next one. It folded in on itself under the spartan's incredible weight. He scythed out a foot cutting one in half with the force alone. During the kick he fired a burst of energy from his pistol that tore into the armor of the nearby droids bypassing it completely to lay waste to the internal circuitry.

A droid lunged at him with a dagger of beaming energy. And they gasped as he twisted his helmet minutely causing the energized blade to miss him by a hairsbreadth. He thrusted his weapon into its chest and left it there. Then Wrath grabbed the metallic wrist and tightened his grip. The metal shattered as he brought his great strength down. He turned the jagged limb and stabbed it into the bots neck decapitating it, and with a flourish retrieved his sword

Wrath was a whirlwind of destruction as he decimated the droid attack force. In less then five minutes he had reduced them from forty five to thirteen.

"Amazing!" Pepper exclaimed.

It was starfox agreed. He was a living weapon. Not a single motion was without purpose. Each was crafted into a killing blow or disabling strike. It was almost effortless, the way he destroyed his foes...no not foes, victims. This was not even a one sided fight, it was a systematic slaughter.

"Wow." Fox muttered.

Then the opposite doors opened again and a large robotic ape even bigger then the spartan stomped out onto the field.

"What is that?" Slippy wondered

"That, is the kong heavy assault mech. The armor is made of starship hull plating. But it shouldn't be here, it's still in the prototype phase. Who authorized this?" Pepper sounded really angry.

Wrath froze. Thumping up to him was a robotic ape. His rational side, Conner knew it wasn't a brute. But Wrath didn't care, if it looked like a brute then to him it was a brute. He ignored the few droids still standing and barreled towards the titanic battle bot.

"What's he doing?" Miyu shouted. "He can't fight that!"

Apparently he could. Wrath threw his sword and it stuck into the ape bot's right leg. It kneeled and tried to stand. Wrath didn't give it a chance. With a quiet growl he impacted against its chestplate sending them both to the floor. Unrelenting Wrath vented in its body. Still growling like a feral beast he brutalized it. Gauntlets raining down blows on its chest caving it in. Wrath was firing his sidearm into its head as he pummeled it. Then with a mighty roar his fist punched into its side. He dug it around until he yanked out a glowing power core. Wrath crushed it in his gauntlets. The once powerful robot stopped moving.

Wrath got off of the wreckage, looked over to the thirteen surviving droids and scored thirteen perfect headshots in rapid succession. The droids stood stock still without heads before falling in heaps of useless scrap. Barrel still cooling, Wrath holstered it and retrieved his blade from the metal monster's leg. With a flick of a rune the sword deactivated and was placed on his waist. He then walked through the massacre of his own design and exited the arena without a word.

Miyu had only one thing to say.

"Damn."

They filed out if the observation room quickly to find the spartan leaning against a wall next to the door. He stood their silent and unmoving.

"That was so cool!" Slippy exclaimed as he ran over to the stalwart spartan.

"Good to see you in one piece." Fox said as he walked up. The spartan nodded. "You okay?" Fox was curious as to why he was so silent.

Conner felt better. He once more had his emotions under control acting like a spartan should. He no longer had the desire to talk, did not feel compelled to. He was back to his old self.

"I don know who put the prototype robot in, but rest assure I will find the culprit." Pepper swore to the spartan.

Honestly he didn't care who did it. It was a welcome reprieve from so long with out conflict. But to humor the old hound he nodded again.

"Are you sure your okay?" Fay asked disturbed by his silence. They must have thought something was wrong. There wasn't, he was just content once more. His emotions clamped back down under his iron will. They would not understand.

He decided to answer just to get then to stop asking. "I'm fine." He said, voice lacking any emotion what so ever. Before they could worry anymore he changed tactics. "We should get back to the briefing." He muttered before standing from his leaning position and walking back to Pepper's office. Every single cornerian on the field stared at him as he thudded down the field.

Krystal gazed concernedly at the back of the retreating spartan. It was strange. Before the fight he was emotional in some way, now he like a robot, much like the ones he had just destroyed. She was worried, and judging by the looks from the other women they were too.

"He's an odd fellow huh?" Pepper asked Fox.

"I've only known him a very short time but yeah, he is a little." Fox confirmed.

"Well we better go after him." Falco grunted and moved to catch up with the spartan.

"Falco is right we best be going." Peppy agreed urging Slippy to go faster, who was lagging behind for some reason.

The men all moved quickly, but the women hung back to talk. "I hope he's okay." Fay said to Krystal and Miyu, she was still worried for their new...friend? She didn't know if he was but she was worried nonetheless.

"I've seen his type before." Miyu grumbled. "All dark attitude and a seemingly uncaring air, although, his case is a severe one. I've never met one like him."

Krystal thought back to when she read his thoughts and went into his mind. "Oh he is anything but uncaring." She shuddered with the memory.

"Really?" Miyu said slowly. "Please do elaborate."

"Well I did enter his mind."

"Yeah...and?"

"I can't say its something he should...if he ever gets emotional enough to." Krystal replied offhandedly.

"Okay, well then if that's all we should be going." Miyu commanded and so the other girls followed.

Conner was the first one to reach the office, obviously. He took position by the desk. Then he waited. He did not wait for long. Falco was the second one to enter, then it was Pepper and Fox with Sliipy and Peppy in tow. A noticeable time later the women arrived. Once they were situated he began his interrupted tale once more.


	7. Chapter 7

Legacy Of The Precursors

Chapter VII

Conner began to speak but halted himself, he knew that he should continue the briefing but he no longer had the urge to talk, and it would require allot of talking. "I think that it would be best if we adjourned for today." Puzzled Pepper asked why. "Because sir, it will be easier to explain at a later date."

Pepper thought it over. "If that is your wish."

"It is sir."

"I guess the meeting is over."

"Not quite." Conner interrupted.

Pepper was startled. "Is there something else?"

Conner took a deep breath, what he was about to say would take allot out of him. "There still is the matter of me being stuck in this part of the universe, I have no way to get back home, and while I have the resources to survive I have nothing worth doing." He explained steadily, while calm on the outside his core was a whirlpool of uncertainty flowing from the problem he had yet to address, what would he do now?

He was lost, the UNSC will never find him and he doubted he would find them either if he went searching for his home galaxy. That was considering if they were even close. For all he knew it was on the opposite side of the universe. He was a tool without a guiding hand, and errant tools can be harmful to all.

He was created to fight for and defend humanity, he could no longer do that. He had already failed his crew. He was the only human left. Which all came full circle to the original question, what would he do?

Epsilon had suggested that he ally himself with these...cornerians. It was a sound plan, it was just he was molded to fight aliens, not to work for them. It was almost an instinctual repellence. Still he had already expended too much effort in trusting them, however little he did, to just abandon the A.I's plot. And if things worked out the tool would have its guiding hand.

"I see your dilemma." Pepper said thoughtfully. "But what do you want from us?"

"I...wish to...pledge my services." He ground out finally. There he said it, he managed to force the words out of his mouth.

Pepper and the others muzzles dropped in confusion. "Why would you want to?"

"From what I've been told, if I was forced to pick a side here, that yours would be the best." He told them haltingly, clearly it was not a decision he took lightly.

Pepper took a long time to think about it, the room was silent until he came to his conclusion. "In order to join you would have to submit to the oath." He warned.

'An oath?' He was hesitant to learn more. "What would that require?"

"You would have to pledge yourself to the safety of Lylat and her people."

Conner debated internally. He was torn between his loyalty to the UNSC, and the chance to have a purpose again. "I...I...I..." For the first time since Starfox met him he sounded unsure, and maybe even a little lost. "I...accept." He said haltingly. "With a condition."

Pepper frowned, "and that would be?"

"I will have to work on my own ship and be a separate entity to the defense force."

"In other words a mercenary."

"Not necessarily, I would only be employed by the CDF and no other faction could seek to hire me."

"I...suppose that could work." Pepper agreed after a second.

"Good." Was Conner's reply.

"What about your crew?" Krystal asked shattering his small victory.

"...crew?" He said slowly.

"Surely such a large ship would have an equally large crew."

The others looked to him interested in his response, they to had been wondering about the spartans crew.

"They...uh..." He cleared his throat "you see the wormhole had a lethal amount of radiation...my suit saved me."

The office was deathly quiet. "You mean to say..." Fox asked the unasked question.

"Yes." Conner said steadfastly. "But it is alright, they were sent off with honor." His voice was normal, as if discussing the weather.

Krystal stared at the crimson visor of the spartan trying to glimpse any tell in his movement. He was as still as stone. How could someone, even an alien, be so cold and distant? She asked herself. She was tempted to peer into his mind, but a quick thought back to earlier stayed that motion.

"If I may ask?" Miyu said grabbing his attention, he turned his head till the visor was looking at her. "How many people did you have on your ship?"

"...six hundred loyal men and women."

"Six hundred, merciful gods." Peppy said sadly.

"How do you cope?" Slippy wondered.

"Cope? What is there worth coping, they died doing their duty, if we all were so lucky."

"I wouldn't call that luck!" Fay grumbled.

"It is all I could ever hope to aspire to." Conner said confidently.

"You aspire...to die in combat?" Falco said disbelievingly.

"Yes, it is what I was created for, there is no other future for me." They could tell he earnestly believed that.

"That can't be true!" Krystal denied.

"It is, its what I sacrificed for my people, any chance at a normal life, to become what they needed."

They looked at the towering spartan with sadness. How could someone wholeheartedly think that?

"We are off topic," the spartan grunted "is our business concluded?" He asked Pepper, who looked at him sadly and nodded. "Very well then commander I will contact my ship." He walked over to the desk and dropped a small sheet of metal with writing on it that he took from a container on his belt. "This is the frequency you can use to contact me." Once he was sure the old bloodhound got it he made for the exit. "Let me know when you have an assignment." And then he was gone.

Pepper looked to Fox with a grim expression on his face, "I've never met a more stone cold man."

Fox agreed, "I don't think he knows how to be normal."

"It's just not right!" Fay said indignantly "he should care about his life, I haven't know him long but I care!" Krystal just stared at the wall sadly. Falco and Miyu just looked at the door he left through. One thoughtful, the other introspective.

Peppy looked to Fox. "In all my years I have never seen a more effective soldier, or such a broken man."

Pepper cleared his throat grabbing the attention of the group. "I have another assignment for you, I want you to work with the spartan, as of now you are to report to his ship, if he objects tell him it's an order."

Fox nodded and got up to leave. The others following after him. As the door opened the bloodhound had one last thing to say. "And Fox, help him." Fox nodded once more and left the room with his team in tow.

Conner stormed down the hallway emotions swirling in his head. What was wrong? He had relived his stress, why was he still bothered by his thoughts. Those inquiries should never have effected him so! They made him question himself.

He had answered as he usually did but, on the inside, he began to doubt. Maybe he deserved to live a normal life, to laugh, to smile, to play...to love. He crushed those traitorous thoughts cruelly and buried them deep, but ever so slowly they would bubble back up to the surface, sparking another burst of doubt. With a deep growl he rammed a gauntlet into the wall next to him smashing through the foot thick metal. He turned his gaze to the fist he had plunged into the wall and then to the cornerians in the hallway.

They looked at him in fear. And for a bizarre moment he felt like apologizing and explaining himself. Instead he retracted his armored fist from the wall, still clenched, and stormed out of the building, cornerians quickly vacating the area in front of him.

Outside he leaned on the wall and tried to establish contact with epsilon. "What is it spartan?" The A.I asked once he had connected.

"I think something's wrong with me." He explained.

"Elaborate."

"I have bouts of rage and other emotions, what is going on?" His outer helms speakers were off so no one else could hear the conversation. Which made it a little disconcerting to see a seven foot tall armored being pace outside the building and wave his hands, as if arguing with someone who wasn't there.

"What do you mean nothing's wrong!" Conner demanded. "Spartans don't have this problem!"

"It is not a problem." Epsilon replied cooly in the face of his rage. "It's normal."

"Spartans. Are. Not. Normal!" He growled. "I have never had this happen before! Is something wrong with my brain?"

"I am not detecting any anomalies, besides the ones from the augmentation."

"Then what is happening to me?" He sounded almost desperate in his need for a answer.

"Nothing."

Fox lead the team out of the room and chased after the spartan. "This is certainly going to be one of our more interesting assignments." He said with a slight chuckle.

No else laughed.

Krystal was one of the last member of the group alongside Miyu and Fay. She thought back to the moment Conner, as she found out his name was, carried her. He seemed almost normal, maybe even caring. But then in the office he was so...machine like, emotionless and distant.

The group stopped when they noticed all the people in the hallway crowding around a hole in the metallic wall. They were gossiping amongst themselves.

"Did you see that, right through the wall!" A ferret exclaimed.

"What do you it was, a robot?" The cat next to him asked.

"I don't think so, robots don't randomly punch holes into walls." A bear said thoughtfully.

Fox walked up to the bear and tapped him on he shoulder. He turned around and Fox asked "what happened?"

"A massive thing in armor came down the hallway and randomly stopped and made this here hole with its fist." He gestured to the large jagged crater.

Fox was worried, was he having another episode? He looked over to Falco who had a similar expression. "We should find him quickly."

Falco addressed the bear. "Where did it go?"

"It just straight up and left the building."

Fox thanked him and made for the exit. Krystal and the their women were just as worried if not more so then the men. Upon leaving the building they saw a small crowd starring at the spartan. He was pacing on the sidewalk near the door and waving his hands in an upset fashion.

Fox gulped audibly and walked over to him.

"You're lying! There can't be nothing wrong!" He ranted at the A.I, before he could continue he felt a light hesitant tap on his back. Mid step he turned to see Fox looking up at him.

"Hey Conner." Was all he said.

Now back to earth so to speak, Conner took the time to take a quick poll of his surroundings. There was a large crowd on the opposite side of the surface street. It seems he had lost control again. He usually would never had gestured so aggressively during a conversation no matter how frustrating. He wasn't even angry anymore, he just sighed and said "yeah Fox?"

"General Pepper has orders."

Good something to occupy his mind with. "What are they?"

"He wants us to assist you on your ship."

Or maybe not so good. "Orders?"

"Yes orders."

"Fine." He grunted. "But I am in charge." He warned.

"Of course."

"Do you and your team need anything?"

"Our ships and some other things." Fox Listed.

"Very well, head back to your ship and prepare yourselves. I will take my gunship and return to the Spirit, when it arrives I expect you to be ready." He warned.

"Roger that!" Fox said and went back to his friends. Huh...friends, it would be nice to have friends Conner thought absentmindedly, and then upon realizing what he said growled and shook his head before following after Fox.

They watched Fox talk with the spartan and after a minute head back with him. "Alright guys let's get going!" The vulpine said enthusiastically. Fox hailed a guard and requested another APC. Shortly one rolled out of the garage next to the building and lowered the rear hatch. The spartan was the first one in. Fay Miyu and Krystal went next and then the others.

Conner was confused. Why did the women insist on being so close. There was plenty of room in the vehicle, yet they sat in the seats around him. It was uncomfortable. Then to make it worse they revived the questioning.

"So Conner, how old are you?" Fay asked and then leaned on him.

"Irrelevant." He said stiffly

"Come on." She drawled slowly, "tell us."

"No."

"Please."

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"...please?"

"...no."

It continued like that until the APC stopped at the starport. Her Inane questioning beginning to gnaw on his sanity. "Pleaseeeeees." She attempted one last time with a puppy dog expression. Krystal and Miyu watched all of this with smiles on their muzzles.

"...No." He tried to escape, smoothly exiting the vehicle as fast as possible. But it was pointless, she would still be living on his ship for an interminable among of time. With that in mind he sighed resignedly.

Life was about to get complicated.

Fox was waiting in the hanger with everyone. Conner had left half an hour ago. So there they sat...waiting. He sighed.

"How much longer?" Slippy groaned impatiently. Ever since he found out they would be spending time on the human ship he had become jittery. He wanted to get a look at it. To see how it ticked. Fox had a bad feeling that Conner would not appreciate that.

"Settle down slip." He growled, Slippy having exhausted his patience.

"Yeah toad, shut it!" Falco grumbled, Fox was surprised that the avian had managed to hold it in for so long. Even Peppy had a pained look. The toad's childlike antics grating away at him. The girls had retreated out of hearing range to the opposite side of the hanger.

Before Slippy could fire off his retort the human ship materialized. They could see it through the shielding separating the hanger from the airlessness of space. It was majestic in a ferocious way. It's beauty was defined by its militaristic appearance. As if humans had turned war into an art form. If they had not alerted the fleet over Corneria their probably would have been a huge panic.

"There! you happy?" Falco shouted. Slippy didn't answer.

Fox rallied the troops, made sure that the belongings they were bringing were loaded into the Arwings, and told everyone to get into their respective craft. Soon they were spaceborn. As they approached the ship they got an even better view of it.

"Damn, it's even bigger then I thought." Falco said in awe on the communication frequency between the fighters.

"Can you imagine what it would take to power it?" Slippy wondered openly.

"Not really." Miyu replied.

Just before Fox could wonder on how exactly they would get inside, a part of the plating on the hull of the ship separated to reveal a cavernous hanger. Seeing it, the team flew in and landed by a couple of intimidating fighters.

Once landed, they departed their Arwings and gathered by Fox's. "So, now that we're here, what do we do?" Falco asked.

"I guess we wait."

No more then two minutes later, the spartan arrived to greet them. "Welcome."

"Uh...hey." Fox said.

"Follow me and I will show you to your rooms." He turned and began to walk away. Looking at each other, they followed.

They spent a good ten minutes walking through the ship with the spartan. He didn't say a word the entire time. Since he was silent they decided to study the ship.

Its corridors were wide and tall, most likely to accommodate the spartans dimensions. The walls were gunmetal grey and undecorated. Conner stopped outside a large room with severely cots. "You can bunk here."

The room was surprisingly spacious, and must have been near the outer hull because it had a fairly large viewport of the surrounding space. "Not bad, not bad." Falco said as he took in the surroundings.

"I will have to ask for the women to follow me." Conner said.

"Why?" Krystal wondered.

"You'll see." Was his answer.

"Dinner will be at 2000 hours. If you need directions you can consult the ships A.I." Conner said to the guys before walking away.

"A.I?" Slippy asked, but he was already gone.

Fox shrugged and said his goodbyes to the women and they left, following after the spartan.

"Well then guys, let's get settled in." Fox said as he claimed the cot closest to the door.

The girls followed the spartan as he trudged through the corridors. He was once again unspeaking. Fay attempted to break the silence. "Excuse me?"

He stopped "yes?"

"Where are we going?"

"To your rooms, I take it you would appreciate some privacy."

They were surprised by his thoughtfulness. "Yes, thank you."

"Good." He continued walking. Krystal was mystified by this human. He was a unsolvable enigma. He rarely shows emotion, and yet he has shown interest in their comfort. He trim was a strange individual.

"Here are your rooms." He gestured to a set of doors, one for each of them. "They belonged to my bridge staff, they won't need them anymore." With that pleasant bit of news he turned around and walked away.

The women took awhile to set up their rooms to their standards. At 8:00 they were alerted by a new voice from inside their rooms that dinner would be ready at the dining hall. Krystal was sitting on the marginally stiff for when she received the call.

"Excuse me lady Krystal, but dinner will be ready soon."

"Who was that?" She asked fearfully as she looked about her room for the owner of the voice.

"It is I, the ships artificial intelligence, Epsilon." A holographic figure appeared on a small stand at the desk in her room. She noticed that it was also covered in a suit of concealing armor.

"Oh."

"Sorry if I worried you. Out people are quite used to the likes of I. I had not though to calculate the differences between our cultures, I shall endeavor to correct any more mistakes."

"Oh it's perfectly alright." She forgave.

"Yes well as per my original instructions, I must inform you that dinner will be ready."

That was good, she was getting a little peckish. One problem though, where was the dining hall. Sensing this Epsilon preemptively answered. "I will guide you to the hall, just listen to my instructions and you should get there without any trouble."

"Thank you." She got up and left her room. Outside she could see Miyu and Fay talking. They turned to her when she showed up.

"Magical voice?" Was all she said.

"Yep."

"Come along, it's best we not tarry." They heard the voice of the A.I interrupt. Grumbling about robots taking over Miyu and the others left to find the dining hall.


End file.
